LIVEdigitally

Do Sony Vaios really suck, or is it just me?

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For the loyal fans, you know my feelings about Sony Vaios. For the newcomers, suffice it to say I went from loving them (even being quoted in Business 2.0 magazine about it) to loathing in a short 8 weeks last summer (you can read this summary to catch up). It’s become a bit of a running gag for me to mention it every few posts, but the truth is I am outraged at the fact that my $2500 is being used for exactly these purposes:

  • Print serving
  • Enabling my Drobo to be network-accessible
  • Playing some Call of Duty 2
  • Beta testing the TuneUp Media software (can’t wait to talk more about this one, and for continued disclosure’s sake, they are a client)

That’s it. That’s my less-than-a-year-old formerly top-of-the-line Vaio. And by the way, I’ve “upgraded” it to run Windows XP in order to perform the above tasks in a satisfactory manner.

When Ed Bott commented a few days offering to inspect the Vaio, I was instantly intrigued. My wife had been trying to put it up on eBay on our behalf (she’s the eBay/craigslister of the family), all we got was interest from a likely scammer (this person, who very cleverly has built some feedback by buying cheap items, then accidentally spilling the beans with us by sending two different emails asking for the same item, with two different addresses – one in the UK, the other in Nigeria – and offering two different prices. oops!). So we’ve taken down the listing, I’m finishing up the scrub on the Vaio today to make sure I didn’t leave any work-sensitive docs there, and I’m shipping it to Ed tomorrow.

Why, you may ask? Well, Ed wants to see it firsthand, see if there’s any saving grace to the “hunk o junk” (as I like to call it). Ed’s going to spend 30 days with the Vaio, during which I’ve told him he’s free to reinstall Vista (as many times as it might take) and try to see if there’s anything to be done with it. In the meantime, he’s going to send me a Dell laptop that he feels performs quite well. In all fairness, my only other Vista experiences are over the shoulders of others, including my mother who has a low-end Dell that I believe is class-action lawsuitable, considering how terrible it performs.

I have an open mind, and frankly I’d love to become impressed by Vista. I’d love to discover my two big experiences were random isolated occurrences, and it’s actually a really stable, fast operating system. Odds aren’t bad I’ll be buying a new notebook 30 days from now. But odds are pretty good right now that it’ll be a MacBook Pro. We’ll see what happens!

Is it time to kill voicemail?

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Remember back when voicemail came out?  I do.  At the time I had an answering machine with a little microcassette that, more likely than not, would accidentally pop out of the machine, intermittently delete messages, or simply choose not to record them in the first place.  There were digital options as well, the ones that used fancy schmancy microchips to record messages, adding a sweet touch of HAL-9000 to the voice of every recorded message.  And then one day our phone companies told us we could part ways with these relics, that they would do us the service of storing our messages for us, all for a low monthly fee.

And we parted ways with our crusty machinery.  We parted in droves.   We parted so fast that within months answering machines had lower resale value than HD-DVD players today.  This move may have actually marked the beginning of the “services” era, where companies started seeking out additional ways to make monthly money with only an incremental increase in services.  And I think we’re reaching one of those interesting inflection points where it’s time for some of those services, specifically voicemail, to start leaving our culture.

Why do I pick on useful, venerable voicemail?  The signs are in the air for its demise.  First, we’re seeing cell phones become the dominant phones in people’s lives, and I don’t have a stat to prove it, but I’d take a wager that home phone usage is on the downturn.  And with cell phones comes automatic caller-ID, automatic call history/logging, and the most blessed service of all, texting.

While nothing beats a phone call for catching up with a friend or loved one, and nothing beats a phone call for resolving an interpersonal dispute or a contract negotiation, or anything else that requires a lengthy conversation, nothing beats texting for a quick message.  If you take a moment to think about the majority of voicemails you receive, I’ll take another wager that the overwhelming majority of them could be reduced into three words:  Call Me Back (sticklers will now point out that the word Back is superfluous, but hey, I’m old-fashioned).  Even the rest of the blah-de-blah of the typical voicemail could be saved for after the return call anyway.

I love texting.  I love it for coordinating quick plans.  I love it for promising to return a call, even while on another call.  I love it for notifying someone I’m late, but en route.  I love it when I need to tell someone I can’t take their call because I’m on the bus, and I don’t want to be one of those bus cell phone people who carry on at length about inane things that nobody, caller included, cares about but the call must go on, heaven forbid an 18-27 year old sit on a bus for 20 minutes without talking to someone about nothing at all.

Texting is more productive too.  Time required to leave a “call me back” message AND listen to it?  Over a minute.  Texting the same thing? Seconds.  And if you don’t have an iPhone, how do you even know who those voicemails are from anyway? It’s a useful tool for informing people about things, whether it’s your followers on Twitter, or yourself on kwiry (disclosure: they are a client of mine).  Texting blows away Facebook poking for a “quick hi”.  It’s probably a great way for kids in school to cheat these days, although I have to assume those days are numbered.  I used to receive Habs score updates through texting (but I subscribed to the hockey package and it kept ruining my games!), and others get stock quotes through it.

Voicemail, on the other hand, is really not good for much.  Sure there are some messages that a text would be quite awkward to send.  I wonder if the future may hold for the transition from “we have to talk” (the worst four words in the English language) to “we have to text”?  For me, I’ll take a quick text over a long voicemail any day.  C U later!

Apple plays the speeds and feeds game

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Apple’s (disclosure: I own AAPL stock) long-awaited MacBook and MacBook Pro revisions were announced today, and surprised many by simply making upgrades.  While I’d have loved to have seen a whole new lineup of laptops, the reality is this move made a lot of sense for the company.  First, let’s not be so quick to forget that it’s been less than 2 months since they announced the Air, and it already has a competitor.  So for us to expect new form factors, designs, or massive changes to the “standard” lineup was not just optimistic, it probably didn’t make much business sense for Apple.

First, designing a product is expensive.  Apple invested a lot into the current MB and MBP lineups, and just finished the Air.  This all doesn’t come cheap (especially for a company that only invests 3% of sales into R&D efforts).  Like it or not, they are still the “up and comer” in the market, so they need to literally squeeze the profits out of every line they can.  It’s also likely that due to expanding sales volumes Apple is driving the costs of producing MBs down further and further, so they are enjoying economies of scale.  Creating a new chassis alone would mess that up.

Next, the company has made steady inroads into the overall laptop market, there’s no real business case for bringing out a whole new lineup.  The Air enables Apple to compete in the ultraportable AND ultrasexy computing spaces.  The MacBook Pro represents the “power laptop” and the MacBook is probably the best budget laptop on the market.  One has to examine the market opportunity (other than existing MB owners) before demanding a costly new revision to a fairly successful product.

So they are left playing the “speeds and feeds” game, wherein the upgrades are about numbers.  Bigger hard drives.  More RAM. Faster CPUs.  Same prices.  The goal here is to show how the units can perform (or outperform) PC counterparts.  I got my MacBook last August with 80GB of storage, which today is way too small – now it comes with 120GB standard.  These enhanced stats are good for the comparisons and the technically sophisticated shopper, but don’t really bring much “wow” to typical consumers.  It’s unlikely that my mom’s going to call me tonight all excited about the new Penryn-powered Mac she heard about.

Would I have loved to see Air-inspired MacBook Pros get announced today?  Sure.  Was I expecting it?  Eh, maybe a little bit.  Am I going to buy a Pro?  Now that’s the question I can’t answer yet.  I do know I’m feeling like my current MB isn’t enough (Photoshop loads slower than my Vaio!  No, I’m just kidding – nothing is slower than the Vaio, which I believe I have successfully sold to a potential scammer on eBay.  Awesome!).  I think I’m going to burrow back into wait-and-see mode for a few more weeks while I sort out the options.  But I’ll probably buy something, just, well, because!

IMDb, still Internetting like it's 1997

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God knows I’m not a big believer in all things 2.0, in fact, I’m not much of a believer in anything 2.0. However, amidst the muck and dreck there are some winners, and more importantly, underlying all the new rounded corners fanciness it’s become clear that the future of the Web is about open platforms and data sources all able to talk to each other. Flickr is better than Kodak Photo Gallery because they made it so easy for me to get to my photos through not only their site, but on my blog, Facebook, etc etc.

Before there was 2.0, in fact, before there was really dot-com, there was IMDB, the Internet-hosted paradise for film geeks.  I won’t see a movie without checking it’s IMDB score, and upon seeing one I’ll instantly dash off to read the trivia, and give it a rating myself.  At a dinner party if a movie gets mentioned and a debate about some actor starts, the laptop comes out, and off to IMDB we go (at a friends’ house I’ll usually just kwiry the movie instead, since they seem to find it rude if I go get their laptop just to prove them wrong).  It’s been that way for a decade or more, and unfortunately, nothing much has changed.

Amazon bought IMDB some years back, integrated shopping in a not-so-bad way too.  IMDB launched “pro” but it’s really for people in the movie business.  So rather than involve the community and become the de facto source for all movie data across all Web sites, IMDB sits on their closed, controlled, protected database, and sits on the sidelines as competitors emerge.

Want to build a movie app using their data?  No problem, you can license it here (and here’s their data format, mercifully updated from CSV into XML in the past few years).  There are discussion forums, but no RSS feeds to get the conversation elsewhere.  There is a “my movies” feature, but if you want it integrated into your blog, you have to use their widget (preview it here) which allows for zero customization.  There is an unbelievable wealth of data, a literal treasure trove of it, and it’s all locked away in their proprietary site.

Part of me thinks that after Amazon bought them they reduced the technical staff down to one or two people, who spend their time making sure the site works in new browsers (see? just like 1997!).  Part of me thinks there’s some crazy person in charge who believes keeping things status quo is the way to win.  I’d like to think there’s some big plan on opening up the platform (remember: open beats closed!), enabling richer applictions to emerge, and IMDB will escape its position as film nerd haven.

But most of me thinks the whole darn thing is locked in some server farm somewhere and nobody can figure out the captcha to get back in.

New plasma ordered: Panasonic TH-50PZ77U

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I wrote an article many moons ago about getting a new flatscreen.  Upon reviewing that post, looks like I stayed within my original criteria.  I have to say, this was one of the least pleasant purchasing decisions I’ve made in quite some time – harder that buying a new computer (easy choice: anything but a Vaio!) or a car.   It made me really look into some major flaws in the process of learning about consumer electronics products, which I will discuss in a moment.

First, I was about ready to drop the budget down to about $1500 to pick up a 46-47″ LCD from either Sharp or Samsung.  My friend Ryan Block is a big fan of the Sharps, and the reviews were pretty solid across the board.  Also, after sharing my CES flight with Bob O’Donnell (the displays analyst from IDC), I had given up on requiring 1080p in my set of needs, mostly because my room isn’t big enough for me to visibly tell the difference.

I researched across Amazon and CNET for reviews.  I even made a little spreadsheet with candidate models to compare prices, reviews, etc.  A Toshiba Regza floated into the mix, and after a chat with EngadgetHD’s Ben Drawbaugh, the Pioneer Kuro popped in as well.  This was a new one, as I had basically ruled out plasmas due to potential sun-brightness.  He has one himself, and after some more research, it seemed to be a winner virtually everywhere I looked (including this very interesting contrast article at Gizmodo).

I put the Kuro (5080HD) in my Amazon cart, updated my Facebook profile, then went to sleep ready to finalize the order.  Guess what I found out?  It got discontinued.  Yesterday!  Augh!  While on the phone with one online vendor (who confirmed the Kuro’s discontinuance), I was recommended the Panasonic unit (although he tried to upsell me some random stuff, so I went back to Amazon).  I chatted with Dave Zatz about it too, as he has a similar unit, and he also felt it was a no-lose option.  Order placed, thank you everybody who helped out!

In doing this research I realized (again) how terribly difficult this must be for random consumers.  I search across dot-coms like Amazon and shopping 2.0 sites like Wize and Retrevo, and all had similar flaws.  No site let me make a perfectly custom search (46-52″ screens, $1500-$2100 budget, etc), which was very disappointing.  No site has perfect data on release dates (Amazon lists the Panny as coming out in 2005, which seems more than a little odd).  No site has good crossindexing for customer support or services information, although Amazon does display an advertisement with a local installer (since I’m going to wall-mount it).

At least when you buy a car you can go to Edmunds, get the right price, have all the info, and know when the new models are coming.  Why is this so hard to duplicate in the consumer electronics world? Seems like quite an opportunity…

HD-DVD's loss does not dictate Blu-ray's win

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As Toshiba officially declares defeat on the HD-DVD format (leaving some 1.3 million people in a lurch), I’m not convinced this spells victory for Blu-ray. Does a single format benefit the industry, consumers and producers alike? Sure. Does it mean consumers will flock to buy Blu-ray players and disks? I think that’s a little less clear at this time.

I’m looking at the state of the industry:

  1. We have a new format that is higher quality than the existing, dominant format, but is most imperceptible to typical consumers.
  2. The current format has been around for several years, has achieved utter dominance, and was a clear improvement on the previous format.
  3. A format war has occurred, leaving most consumers sitting on the sidelines for a long time, minds filling with doubt.
  4. At the same time as the new format is gaining some traction, alternate media consumption methods have emerged.
  5. The cost difference to adopt the new format is fairly foreboding.
  6. There is a lack of content available in the new format.
  7. Specialized hardware is needed for the new format, and it’s not inexpensive.
  8. There is a lot of jargon and confusing terminology associated with the format.

Here’s what’s interesting (to me, at least) is the description I have above is applicable to not only Blu-ray, but also DVD-Audio. SACD. Laserdisc. Minidisc. HD Radio. I’m sure there are more if I dig deeper. Fundamentally, I believe the timing is simply not right for Blu-ray to win independent of other activities. Here are some specific concerns I have:

  • Consumers, for the most part, can barely tell the difference between an upscaled DVD image and a Blu-ray picture (especially not for $300).
  • They probably don’t have the confidence (yet) that the format is here to stay.
  • The content library is weak (it may be growing, but it’s presently weak – Amazon has 176 titles in the Action/Adventure category at the time of writing).
  • The 720p vs 1080i vs 1080p debate is full of inconsistencies and confusion as to true benefits to the consumer (made worse by companies using marketing terms like TrueHD and Full-HD).
  • Products like the iPod, Slingbox, and AppleTV and services like Hulu and even YouTube are giving consumers more options in how they choose to watch and consume content.
  • Also, the above technologies are all presenting wider content options in lower quality, thereby not reinforcing the need for a “better” HD format (just as the iPod/MP3 decimated the opportunity for DVD-Audio/SACD).

If some/many/all of these issues change rapidly, we might see Blu-ray emerge victorious. What could take it’s place? I don’t know, the question might go unanswered for quite some time.

The war may be lost for HD-DVD, but it is far from over for Blu-ray.

Verizon's New Plans? Success. LiveChat Customer Service? Fail.

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I saw over at Engadget today that Verizon has some new cell plans.  This is great news for Verizon customers like me who are being raked over the coals to enjoy their network.  And I’m not being (too) facetious here, it really is a great network, I only drop calls in two locations: (1) I-280 by Sand Hill Road (millions of VC dollars can’t get a good tower built???) and (2) inside the United terminal of JFK.  Otherwise, all is great.

I saw the new plans seemed quite attractive, but none quite meet my needs.  I have a “FamilyChoice” plan that my wife and I use to make calls throughout the US and Canada (where we go frequently).  It’s a little pricey, but very convenient for our needs.  The new plans are:

  • $100 – Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
  • $120 – Nationwide Select Unlimited (voice, SMS, MMS)
  • $140 – Nationwide Premium (voice, SMS, MMS, VZNav, VCAST, email)
  • $150 – Nationwide Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and data)
  • $170 – Nationwide Global Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and international data)
  • $200 – Family plan with two lines, $100 per additional line.

All look good, but no Canada.  After viewing the Verizon website for a while, I saw a chat window pop up, offering help.  I figured it would be easier than calling.  Here’s the transcript (verbatim, no edits made):

Antione.: Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service.  May I help you with your order today?
You: hi
You: i am an existing customer, i have the America’s Choice FamilyPlan
You: so it’s 3000 minutes, for both USA and Canada
Antione.: How may I assist you today?
You: i heard there are new plans
You: whats the new equivalent for my plan?
Antione.: How many lines?
You: 2
Antione.: I recommend the Nationwide Family Share Basic 3000 minute plan. This plan includes unlimited nights & weekends so you can talk all you want on the nights and weekends. It also includes unlimited IN calling so you can talk free to any Verizon Wireless customer. This plan costs $149.99 per month and includes 2 lines. Will this plan work for you?
You: does it include canada?
Antione.: You can call to canada with our nationwide plans.
Antione.: How does that sound?
You: how about from canada?
You: (sorry about that delay, the window was hidden)
Antione.: Yes, you can call to canada with a nationwide plan.
You: how about calling FROM canada?
Antione.: One moment please.
Antione.: We do not have any family plans to allow you to call to canada.
You: so i shouldnt change from what i have today, right?
Antione.: You can keep your current plan if you would like.
Antione.: What features are important to you in a phone?
You: huh?
Antione.: Are you eligible for an upgrade?
You: why are you asking? does this impact my ability to make calls to/from Canada?
Antione.: I have not heard from you for a few moments.  Would you like me to keep this chat session open for you?
You: did you see my previous question?
Antione.: I was checking to see if you were eligible to upgrade your phone. Our family plans does not offer you to call to canada.
You: so the question had nothing to do with what I was asking about?
Antione.: We offer a single line that has the ability to call to canada. I am sorry about that, we do not offer any phones that will allow you to call canada with the family plan.
You: ok, thanks very much

Hmmm… I think my favorite part is the triple flip flop on whether or not Canada is supported.  It’s either that or the random shift from helping me into trying to get me to buy a new phone.  Thanks very much, Antione, for so much non-help.  I feel slightly dumber for having had that conversation.

Why are Google's SMS services unreliable?

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When I switched to a Mac, I couldn’t find any calendaring system I liked, so I moved over to Google Calendar (or, as the guys in my office call it, GooGooCow).  Took a while to get used to, and I still don’t understand why they don’t mark full-day events as actually “busy” data, but that’s neither here nor there.  One ridiculously useful feature they introduced a few months ago was the ability to get SMS reminders.  Now my $49 Samsung phone is in synch with my calendar (and it does video, all for much less than $499).

The combo was great, as 10 minutes before any appointment I’d get a text message on my phone.  All was good in the world.

Until about 3 weeks ago.  When it started getting unreliable.

Now, I get some alerts long after events are over.  I get others just as events begin.  Some I don’t get at all.

Which means I have to go look for a new solution, because in the world of alerts/reminders, unreliability is about as bad a problem as anything I could imagine.  It’s weird too, seeing as how it’s (1) a very easy technology, and (2) Google usually scales well.  Very very annoying.  I think the only worse solution would be hiring Britney Spears as my administrative assistant.  Yes, I went there.

10 websites that need improvement, badly

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Been a while since I’ve blogged, I know, a little too much travel, not enough interesting new tech for me.  So I could weigh in on the mysterious undersea cable cutting conspiracy, but, just like all the other bloggers who’ve commented, I really have no clue about it.  Instead, I’ve got some simple tips to improve some web sites I use a lot.

  1. Evite
    Somehow even with all the froobooloo.com, sqzzzr’s, and other Web 2.0 sites, nobody’s managed to beat up on Evite.  Which is stunning considering it’s really the same site it was back in 1999.  No Plaxo integration.  No custom template editing.  No useful host tools.  The only new features I’ve seen are about sending my evite to my mobile device.  So how about just giving the host the ability to review the guest list from within the site (the CSV export is ridiculous)?  Just showing me the email addresses of my invitees would make a world of difference.  My estimated difficulty to integrate (on a 1-10, where 10 is really hard): 1.5.
  2. Google Calendar
    This one’s short and sweet: when an all-day event is booked, it should “block off” the whole day!  See Outlook 2003 calendering for reference.  JT’s Difficulty-o-Meter: 2.
  3. IMDB
    Again, ANY new features would be nice.  But I’ll settle for some basic improvements in the “My Movies” features.  Don’t double entries just because I put them in multiple categories.  Also, let me export the list.  Also, let me share the list (in a “real” way, the current method is bogus).  Bottom line is I have no real use for this feature as it currently stands, so any features are better features.  JT’s Difficultizer: 3.
  4. CNET (and many many others, but I care more about you!)
    Don’t require login to comment on blogs.  It’s only reducing the likelihood that people will converse, yet not increasing the quality of content.  JT’s Dffclty–mtr: 1.
  5. Facebook
    Make groups useful already! Right now, the entire usefulness of a group is the process of adding it to your profile so your friends can see you added it.  They, in turn, may add it as well.  This cycle continues until you notice the group is either (a) spamming you, (b) entirely useless, or (c) overwhelmed with marketing pitches, at which point you leave the group.  Soon, your friends follow.  The JT challenge: 7
  6. YouTube
    Copy (literally) the Flickr style of sharing private photos.  Allow me to mark a video private, then get a hidden URL I can email to people.  Like it or not, not everybody plans to become a YouTube user, and I’d rather not burden my parents with such a chore just to see my baby videos (which are, of course, the cutest videos on YouTube).  JTdiff: 4.
  7. Xbox Live website
    Two features this time.  One, allow me to search for friends’ gamertags using their email addresses and other piece of info (or just do a Plaxo integration).  Second, and more interesting, is building in some “group game scheduling” feature where I can tell my friends I plan to play a certain game (say, COD4) at a certain time (say, this weekend, probably Saturday night or Sunday), and they can sign up to play.  Then we all get reminders from within the Xbox Dashboard.  Or on Facebook, whatever…  JT difficulterer: 6.5.
  8. Flickr
    First, you have to go fix the really broken version of the Mac uploader, but that’s a bug, not an improvement.  How about allowing us to customize our pages?  I’d like to have more than the few meager options I have today for default layouts.  ytluciffid TJ: 3.
  9. Ustream.tv and hockeybuzz.com and anyone else who automatically plays video when you come to their home page
    Stop it.  Now.
  10. Amazon.com
    Integrate the wiki and community with the rest of the product pages.  It’s so completely disjointed and looks so out of place.  Also, give us more control over search filters, I hate the options you’ve preselected for me (hint: not everybody is comparing 40-49″ flatscreens, sometimes we look for 46-52″ displays…).  JT’s diff: 4.
  11. Bonus: LIVEdigitally.com
    First, how the heck do you pronounce this site, and why is the “live” capitalized?  Also, get the content flowing a little more regularly.  10.

Pondering life without a laptop

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Every now and then I like to think about how I could remove different technologies from my life. The sad truth of the matter is most are here to stay, from my cell phone to my flat panel to my digital camera. It just seems like in every category I investigate, the technology makes life easier/better in some way. My digital camera and high definition TV are unquestionably better than older, analog versions. My cell phone certainly lets me keep in touch with my family easier, and also makes work communications better. But what about the laptop?

My laptop (currently a MacBook, formerly a Sony Vaio SZ-VGN460N, until I realized how terrible it was) comes home at night, and travels with me to work in the morning. It’s likely carried along to 80% or so of my meetings, and also travels with me when I go see friends or family. It comes on 100% of business trips. So the $25K question (which these days should be more like the $100K question if you count inflation) is: how could I get rid of it?

First, I’d need a computer at home and at work. The work one would need some type of remote desktop technology. I’d probably need to use gmail or another Web-based email service, although I’ve already adopted Google Calendar so that’s not a big deal. I use Google Docs from time to time, but I don’t believe they are sufficient for the more powerful spreadsheet or presentation forms, and would be concerned there. That said, about 90% of my workday is spent doing email/phone calls/meetings, the rest is working on some form of a document. I think I’d get by without a significant drop in productivity.

However, I’d need some solution for the meetings I go to, and I’d be hesitant to rely on toting a USB key for all documents I might need. I’d also be a little concerned about the appearance of professionalism, but maybe I’d just start wearing a tie or something to get around that. After all, not everyone in technology has to look like a schlub all the time, right?

My flight time would definitely show a drop in productivity, but to be honest, I typically watch reruns of Arrested Development while in air, with a smattering of email sending and inbox clearing between episodes. I’d definitely read more (without a Kindle) on these trips.

As for the personal time, I think it’s safe to say a little less laptop wouldn’t hurt. Yeah, I wouldn’t be able to look something up on IMDB the second I finish the movie anymore, but that’s not the worst thing, eh? If my wife ever gets around to reading my blog again I’m sure she’d be agreeing too (right, hon?).

If I had to give up some major piece of technology in my life, I know that the cell phone and digital camera would both remain. I think just about everything else becomes pretty optional. But since I don’t have to, I think the MacBook lives on in this house. Well, that is until I replace it with a better one this year sometime, because after all, that’s technology.

Apple/MS: please fix installations!

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It’s unbelievable to me that in this day and age it’s still so ridiculously difficult to install things. Hardware, software, drivers, whatever. Is it easier with my Mac than it was with Windows? Sure. Especially relative to my Sony Vaio, which, (say it along with me people), is the most terrible laptop you can buy. (Exhale).

I write this roughly 70 minutes into the process of attempting to install a simple webcam on my dad’s computer (guiding him through it over the phone). First, it’s a Microsoft LifeCam VX-1000, which apparently strongly encourages the user to download and install Live Messenger otherwise nothing will work. Which I know is a lie, but to the unsuspecting installer, is quite a threatening note to the inexperienced user. Bad form.

Next up, the bewildering steps of determining which order hardware/software installs can go. Just plain stupid. If one requires the other, the respective systems simply should not allow the user to proceed. How hard is that? I’m not exactly a top-notch coder, but I’m pretty sure it would look something like:

if (!hardware_installed()) then install_hardware();

The above steps are definitely more Windows pains that Mac ones, but next is the process of actually putting software where it belongs. The first problem lies in a software download, which invariably ends up in a random location on the user’s computer, and probably stays there forever, long after the installation is completed. As much as OS X brings the simplicity of moving apps into the Applications folder, the fact remains that there is unnecessary room for error (and for the tech-elitists reading this who think it’s SOOOO easy, I’m amazed you got this far).

Finally, I really dislike the fact that applications are less aware of hardware than they should be. Back to my father’s case, shouldn’t Skype be “aware” of the fact that a webcam showed up? Why should he have to go into settings, video options, webcam settings, and pick the device? OK, this one isn’t Apple/Microsoft’s fault, but they certainly could provide the required infrastructure to make it work better.

By the way, for those keeping track, it took a total of about 80 minutes to get my dad’s webcam working. And it only took two system reboots, three aborted installs of MS Live Crappenger, and 5 visits to the Skype tech support forums.

The Toemeister! Makin' Copies! Toemaramaman!

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The more people I talk to, the more I am amazed at the lack of backups people do.  The most common method I’ve heard about is people burning CDs or DVDs on a very erratic/irregular basis.  If this is your personal method, let me take a moment to shout at you:

YOUR COMPUTER’S HARD DRIVE WILL DIE OVER TIME.

THE CDS AND DVDS YOU BURN WILL DIE OVER TIME.

YOU NEED MULTIPLE BACKUPS.

Sorry bout the yelling, but I felt an intervention was in order.  Why?  Well, first I like to think I’m looking out for my fellow man/woman.  Second, I know full well that all my non-techie friends and family, upon the moment where their 7-year-old computer finally kicks the bucket, are gonna call me and ask how they get their beloved pictures back.  Psst – you can’t.

Here’s my personal backup strategy, it’s easy to follow and doesn’t require a massive amount of effort:

  1. I own a portable HDD (Seagate Freeagent), a NAS (Maxtor Shared Storage plus – probably replacing soon), and a Drobo. I also have an Infrant ReadyNAS at my office.  This is, in a word, massively excessive.  But not by much.  I recommend TWO different external storage solutions, and I further recommend buying them several months apart.  Hard drives die over time, and if you get two drives simultaneously, you increase the risk that they will die in tandem.
  2. I have a monthly calendar appointment (first Sundays) to do a backup.  During this backup I copy everything from my Documents folder into the various drives.  Personally I do not worry about having numerous archives, so I can do all my work in a simple drag and drop.  If you do need multiple versions of things, I recommend picking up some backup software (no specific recommendations on that from me though).
  3. Photos are an exception.  I backup photos the moment I’m done downloading them from my digital camera.  I’d rather lose a month of documents than a month of photos.  I also am a Flickr “pro” user, which gives me unlimited online backup at full resolution, and I do a Flickr upload within a day of downloading photos also.

I hope this inspires a few of you to get your act together with a backup solution.  Unfortunately, it probably doesn’t, as it seems to be one of those things that people ignore until it’s too late and they’ve lose data.

To put in other terms.  No backup == FAIL.